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Comment by meowster | Hacker News Reader

Just a friendly reminder for everyone: in the United States, companies cannot legally void your warranty for removing "warranty void if removed" stickers or similar (like wax seals).

Companies can only void the warranty on specific items that you damage. As long as you don't damage anything when opening up electronics, ask them to put in writing why they are voiding your warranty (chances are they'll "help you just this one time" instead).

The FTC is finally cracking down on companies that use such warnings.

(Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act - same law that lets you or third parties do work on your vehicles without voiding the manufacturer warranty.)

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I've seen those stickers on hard drives. I always assumed that maybe the internal mechanisms were in a vacuum or super-clean and opening the case would allow air or dust into the moving parts.

> As long as you don't damage anything when opening up electronics

Considering the nature of hard drives, I think that would fall under damage caused by opening.

My understanding is that they are not in a vacuum, but they are super-clean. The air/gas inside is an important part by preventing the read/write head from touching the platters as they rotate. If a consumer opens it up, then dust is introduced which will cause problems.

The higher-end and larger drives today are filled with helium (or vacuum in some exotic cases), and opening the case at all completely destroys the drive's ability to operate.

I'm pretty sure the helium-filled hard drives are incredibly difficult to seal, and IIRC are welded shut. I don't see how you'd open it in the first place without a dremel anyway.

Most hard drives today are ultrasonically welded shut (metal to plastic) and hermetically sealed. The helium drives are not much harder to get into than normal hard drives today. The difference in processing is actually only a few steps where they insert the helium and then close the final hole.

Wait, so if I open my MacBook it is still under warranty ?

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